Black & white photography

A good black and white photograph makes use of contrast, either in the existing colours or created by the light, and built structures in strong sunlight are especially good for that. The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin has a strikingly stark, structure, and its slight irregularities form a broken pattern. What makes this photograph special is the lone man amid the slabs, a human touch amid the sharp edges, and the way the photographer has taken care not to over-expose the scene, instead allowing the texture of the concrete to be seen.

This photographer has made clever use of the bright sunlight. In these sorts of conditions, you're stuck with a choice of exposing for the highlights or the shadows, or creating an HDR. With two people moving around on bikes there's no chance of shooting a bracketed exposure, and the photographer chose to expose for the highlights. Thanks to a a very short exposure the fountain's spray looks almost like a wall of cut glass, catching the light, and throwing the silhouetted cyclists into crisp relief.

The off-centre composition and downcast gaze make this an unusual portrait, but that's part of what makes you take a second look at it. The whole thing is beautifully exposed, with side illumination bringing out the subtle textures in the background, the shape of the young girl's face and the highlights in her hair without any detail being lost. It's well focussed too, with the face and the hair falling across it nice and sharp, while things soften gently further back.

With black and white photography, it can be tempting to boost the contrast in an image until nearly everything is pure black or white, in order to avoid a flat grey look. Yet flat grey is precisely what makes this picture! It allows the bright white foam and highlights on the water to stand out as clearly as the little boy's shadow. A fast shutter speed keeps everything crisp and clear, from the boy skipping along to the glittering sea.

Contrast: essential to most good black and white shots. The subject here is ideal for monochrome, as bright colours in the model's clothing or makeup could draw all the impact from the subtle texture of the falling snow against the dark background. A well-chosen aperture means the model's face - critically, her eyes - and the fur of her hood stay sharp, while her hands and most of the snow are at least slightly out of focus. You instinctively look at her face, but you don't lose sight of the snowy setting.

This is a classic shot, but so beautifully done that it made our top 10. Using a long exposure has ensured a milky sea that contrasts well with the dark, textured rocks and sunlit castle. When converting a shot to black and white there can be the temptation to take things too far, but the photographer has kept plenty of midtones in the image so it doesn't look cartoonish. The triangular shape of the rock on the lower-right points towards the castle, so even though it's small you know exactly where to look.

The sad remains of Brighton's West Pier exert an irresistible pull on photographers. The remaining metal skeleton and what's left of the walkway supports make starkly graphic silhouettes, especially when the sea and sky are softened over a long exposure, as is the case here. This photo is a prime example of the importance of waiting until the weather conditions are right, and making sure the right elements are brought out in post-production, as a completely flat sky would have lacked interest.

Getting this exposure right will have involved careful manual metering by the photographer. In this sort of situation a camera's auto mode will want to include lots of mid-tones and turn all that snow a dingy grey, so it's best avoided. The careful composition really helps the shot, as the crossroads falls roughly a third down and a third in from the top and left of the frame, while the strong diagonal lines formed by the roads draw the viewer's eye in and out of the image.

This image is so simple, you will stop and look at it even when it's just a thumbnail, and seen larger it loses none of its impact. Usually you'd avoid over-exposing as it can result in the loss of detail, but for portraits of pale-skinned subjects it can be useful, smoothing over tiny wrinkles, pores and uneven colouration. There's just enough shadow to show the shape of the edges of the hands, which combine with the strong lines of the eyebrows to form a V-shaped frame to the eyes. The viewer's eye is drawn immediately to the model's gaze.

Photographing mostly dark subjects can present the camera with a challenge: as with very pale ones, if you use the auto-metering mode it will try to render the rich tones as a mid-grey, leaving the subject washed out, so careful manual metering is called for. Here the photographer has used very soft lighting and subtle makeup to bring out the shape of the model's features and the texture of her braids while still retaining a velvety softness, with no harsh highlights. A gleam in her eyes and on her lipgloss bring the viewer's eyes to the model's face.